New tire help

[jaster]

Hi all, kinda new here (husbands acct) and would appreciate some help. My husband is currently deployed in the army and I need some tire help for his 99 explorer xlt 4 wheel drive. The tires on there now are bubbled, dry and need to be replaced. I was talking to my brother and he said he can get the tires mounted for me and all taken care of as long as I get the tires. I want to get my huband the biggest tires possible on the original rims. His truck is not modified at all. His tires on there now say 235/75 r-15. can I get bigger tires without replacing the rims? I am unable to do any modifications or anything on it, I just want to order new tires online and have them brought to my dooor so my brother can work on them for me. I have no idea what the numbers mean and all, i just want to know, do i have to get the same size tires or can i go bigger? If so what are the numbers of the biggest tires I can get? i dont want to ruin his truck or have the tires hitting the body or anything. I was looking at tire rack.com. Has anyone used them before? Are they any good? thanks in advance for your help.

 

[jaster]

Oh, one more thing. When turning the front right wheel seems to rub, skip, crunch, something like that. I took it into the shop at one time for this a few months ago, and I was told it was a loose brake shim. got it back, and now the noise and feeling is happening again. could this be a brake shim? Could it be the bubbles in the tire? My brother is going to have the truck up on a jack this weekend. Anything he should look for to find the problem? Someone mentioned ball joints or cv joints or bearings, something like that. how does he check these to see if they are bad? Anything lse it could be?

 

[hiridin]

stock tires are 235x75r15 they are about 29" tall... u can fit 31x10.50r15 on the truck with little to no modification. i had to trim a little plastic back when i had 31's. and they kissed the tops of the wheel wells. nothing i couldn't live with. but with a simple torsion twist to gain an inch or two of lift u can fix that. if it rubs at all. and some shackles or add-a-leafs in the rear to level it out. really not a big deal to do any of that. sounds like your brother is more than capable of handling that. the torsion twist is free except for the wheel alignment. the shackles and add-a-leafs are quite inexpensive too. this will give the truck a nice stance imo and would compliment the tires. if the thought of rubbing slightly bothers you or u don't want to raise it up a slight bit maybe u should go with 30x9.50r15... though the 31's will look better. as far as ordering online... some places don't like to sell oversize tires for the explorers so just tell them u have a ranger or something.

 

[je5]

I recommend the tirerack. Check your CV joints. I would stay close to the factory tire size.